US central bankers opened their two-day policy meeting on Tuesday with another steep interest rate hike seen as a near certainty amid stubbornly high inflation.

The Asian Development Bank on Wednesday cut its 2022 growth forecast for developing Asia, with crippling Covid-19 lockdowns in China, conflict in Ukraine and efforts to combat inflation dragging on the region.

The Indian rupee closed at its lowest level ever against the US currency on Wednesday, tracking the dollar index’s strength as the US Federal Reserve gears up for a hefty rate hike to tame inflation pressures.

India said on Tuesday it had begun talks with Sri Lanka on restructuring its debt and promised to support the crisis-hit neighbour mainly through long-term investments after providing nearly $4 billion of financial aid.

Apple Inc said on Tuesday it will raise prices of apps and in-app purchases on its App Store from next month in all of the euro zone and some countries in Asia and South America.

The distance between India and Bangladesh over waterways will decline by 116 kilometres after the excavation of the old Brahmaputra river, said State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury yesterday. 

Oil prices ticked up on Tuesday as Opec and its allies keep producing less than their quotas, but were headed for a fourth monthly decline ahead of an expected further US interest rate hike which may curb economic growth and fuel demand.

German utilities RWE and Uniper are close to striking long-term deals to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar’s North Field Expansion project to help replace Russian gas, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Inflation in Japan hit 2.8 per cent in August, the highest level since 2014, government data showed Tuesday, as soaring energy prices bite.

At least 20 ships are waiting to load around 600,000 tonnes of rice at Indian ports as New Delhi’s surprise export restrictions have trapped cargoes for nearly a fortnight, forcing sellers to pay demurrage charges, industry officials told Reuters.

European governments outlined new measures on Monday to cope with potential energy shortages this winter and raced to improve energy networks to share power, with Russian gas flows still running at severely reduced rates amid the Ukraine war.

The German central bank said Monday it was increasingly likely that Europe’s largest economy would shrink for a “prolonged” period as Russia throttled energy supplies to the continent.

Top lender State Bank of India has asked exporters to avoid settling deals with Bangladesh in the dollar and other major currencies as it looks to curb exposure to Dhaka’s falling reserves, according to an internal document and a source.

World Bank has sought to know about Bangladesh’s current economic situation, especially the state of forex reserve and inflation, ahead of providing $250 million in budgetary support. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to sign contracts for liquefied natural gas (LNG) during his visit to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, his deputy chancellor said, as Germany looks for new partners to replace Russian energy imports.

Sterling was weaker against a robust dollar on Monday, hovering near last week’s 37-year low, with sentiment towards the British currency remaining weak given a darkening economic outlook.

Norway’s central bank is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate again this week and signal a continued rise in the cost of borrowing in the fourth quarter to combat inflation, a Reuters poll showed on Monday.

Mercedes-Benz is planning to build a wind farm in the northwestern German state of Lower Saxony, by 2025 that is able to produce a hundred megawatts of electricity, equivalent to over 15 per cent of the carmaker’s annual demand in Germany, it said on Monday.

The German economy is contracting already and will likely get worse over the winter months as gas consumption is cut or rationed, the country’s central bank said on Monday.

India’s central bank is using up its foreign exchange reserves at a quicker pace than during the taper-tantrum period in 2013 as it tries to prevent an overshoot in the rupee, but a larger pool of reserves may allow it to support the currency for some more time, economists said.